Brand Strategy, Identity & Website
One Name People Can Trust
Submitted by:
Tellwell Story Co. 5 14th St. N. Fargo, ND 58102 701-566-0750 · wetellwell.com
Prepared for: Ken Budd, CEO, and Rachel Weber, 702 Communications Date: October 2026
Hey 702 team,
Thank you for the time and honesty you gave us at your Focus Finder. Tellwell has been a 702 customer since our first office, so it means a lot to be invited into this moment with you.
A new CEO and a merger put 702 at a real turning point. Your customers will want to know what the merger means for them. Your team, made up of people from three brands, will want to know where they fit. Getting both answers right during the rollout builds trust on both sides, and it gives you a brand clear enough to carry the acquisitions and new services you're already thinking about.
You've spent years earning the recognition 702 has in this region. Whatever comes next should build on that work.
Let's build something great, together.
-Jenny, Max & Team Tellwell
What we heard about your goals
- Bring 702, Aurora Fiber Networks, and Fiber Minnesota together under one story your new board can stand behind
- Clear up brand confusion. Staff use different names, customers mix up the three brands, and some people assume 702 is a Nevada area code
- Explore the name and a unified brand with the board making the final call, and leave room for future acquisitions and new lines of work like consulting
- Speak clearly to three audiences with very different needs: wholesale and hyperscale partners, managed services customers who want to compare options side by side, and MDU residents and property managers
- Help a team of about 40 land on one shared answer to why 702 exists
- Turn a passive website into one that guides people to a next step, with real photos in place of stock and the managed services pages that never got built
- Show the real faces and local people behind the network, which Ken sees as 702's biggest difference from much larger competitors
- Use the new annual marketing budget well, with the quieter weeks after New Year's as a good window to gather people
What's at stake
The merger is announced, and 702 will run under its current brand through about the first half of 2027. That window is when customers decide what the change means for them. If they hear three names and see stock photos, they fill in the story themselves. Wholesale partners comparing you in an RFP, business owners comparing managed services, and property managers choosing a provider for a whole building all make that call with whatever you give them.
The order of the work matters too. A website built before the brand is settled gets rebuilt within the year. Building strategy, then brand, then website means you pay for each piece once and launch them together.
Three brands, one window.
Customers experiencing the merger will hear three names and see stock photos unless something changes. The story gets written either way — by you or by them.
Trust on both sides.
Your customers need to know what the merger means for them. Your team needs to know where they fit. Getting both answers right during rollout is the same work.
The sequence matters.
Brand built before strategy gets rebuilt. Website built before brand gets rebuilt. Doing this in order means you pay for each piece once.
Room to grow.
You're already thinking about future acquisitions and new service lines. The brand you build now needs to be big enough to carry them.
Project overview
You're entering one of the biggest chapters in your organization's history. Three brands are becoming one, a new board is forming, and your customers and staff are looking for a clear answer to who you are.
This partnership starts with a brand strategy built from the voices inside all three brands, then carries into a new brand identity and a website that puts both to work. While that foundation comes together, we'd get real photos of your people onto your current site right away, so 702 looks like the local company it is during the months before launch. The fullest option carries the new brand through its first year with film and ongoing content.
We've laid out three options so you can choose how far to go together. We're grateful to be part of it.
Start:
Brand strategy
What We'll Do
- Facilitate five listening sessions, starting with your executives and merger working group, then your new board, then staff groups across wholesale, managed services, and MDU
- Interview the people closest to each audience, from sales to technical implementers
- Study up to four competitors and define up to four audience personas
- Present the finished strategy to your board and staff
What You'll Get
- Why, mission, and vision language, plus your brand story
- A brand personality and voice guide, three to five messaging pillars, and one-liner and tagline options
- A messaging framework for each priority audience, a "how to talk about us" guide, and a story bank
- A creative brief, a Seasons of Story content calendar, campaign recommendations, and an implementation roadmap
- A custom AI tool trained on your brand, set up in the system your team already uses
Impact: Everyone in the new organization, from the board room to the install crew, can explain who you are in the same words. Every decision about your name, your identity, and your website gets made against this foundation.
Create:
Brand identity and brand house
What We'll Do
- Build the visual identity for the merged organization from the strategy, whether the board keeps 702 or chooses a new name
- Design a brand house that shows how wholesale, managed services, MDU, and future additions fit under one parent brand
- Develop three logo concepts and refine one through two to three rounds of revisions
- Carry forward what people already recognize, including 702 red, wherever it serves the new brand
What You'll Get
- A logo, color palette, and typography system
- A brand house that gives each line of business a clear place
- Full brand guidelines with application examples
- Eight to ten templates for the pieces your team uses most
- A complete asset library in every format
Impact: Customers see one organization instead of three names. Your team has the tools to roll out the merger without rebuilding the look every time something new launches.
Create + Activate:
Website
What We'll Do
- Audit the current site, your Google Analytics, and up to four competitor sites to see how people find and use you today
- Map up to 20 pages with UX strategy and wireframes, including the managed services pages that never got built
- Design the site from the new brand and write copy for every page
- Set up on-page SEO and AEO (answer engine optimization), so you show up in search results and in the answers AI tools give when someone asks about internet or IT providers in your area
- Build a lead capture quiz and connect the site to your CRM setup on the residential and business sides
- Launch the site, train your team, and stay on call for 90 days after go-live
What You'll Get
- A new WordPress site of up to 20 pages, mobile responsive and tested for accessibility
- A homepage and four or more interior page templates designed from the new brand
- Up to four custom forms with conditional logic, CRM integration, and up to two custom integrations
- Full on-page SEO and AEO setup, technical SEO, and performance tuning
- A 45-minute handoff training, up to five recorded training videos, a handoff guide, and 90 days of post-launch support
Impact: Wholesale partners find a clear capabilities overview. Managed services customers can compare their options. Homeowners and property managers know what to do next, and when someone asks a search engine or an AI tool for a local provider, 702 is in the answer.
Create:
Photography and a quick start this fall
The full strategy, brand, and website take until late spring. Your current site shouldn't wait that long.
What We'll Do
- Plan each shot list with you around your people, your crews, your trucks, and the communities you serve
- Photograph a first shoot in November and swap the stock imagery on your current site for photos of your own people and work, with light copy updates where the photos tell a warmer story
- Photograph a second shoot in spring, once the new brand is set, for the new website and launch
What You'll Get
- Your current website, refreshed with real 702 people and places, live before the end of the year
- A library of real photos, licensed to you outright, for the website, the merger launch, social, and sales materials
Impact: You're local to Moorhead, and people in this region should recognize the faces in your marketing. Customers see a local company the moment they land on your site, months before the new brand launches.
Create + Activate: Launch film and a year of content
Two films.
Featuring your employees and customers, shaped by what the strategy tells us matters most to each audience. Cut into commercials for broadcast, streaming, and social.
A year of content.
12 months of monthly content after launch, following the Seasons of Story calendar from your strategy, keeping the new brand in front of customers, partners, and your own team.
Real proof.
Ken's goal was to show that 702 isn't transactional. Films with real employees and real customers prove it, and a year of steady content makes sure the launch keeps working after launch day.
Your investment
All three options start with brand strategy. They differ in how much of the merger rollout we build together.
Option 1 carries the merger from listening sessions through the new brand's first full year in market.
Option 2 gives you a finished brand and a new website, launched together in late spring, with your current site refreshed this fall.
Option 3 settles who you are and what you look like, and leaves the website for your team or a later phase.
What the year could look like
November
Kickoff with your merger working group. Listening sessions begin with executives and the board. First photography shoot.
December
Staff listening sessions. Your current site goes live with real 702 photos.
January
Brand strategy delivered and presented to your board and staff. Brand identity begins.
Feb–March
Brand identity and brand house developed and delivered.
March–April
Website audit, sitemap, wireframes, design, and copy. Second photography shoot with the new brand in hand.
May
Website build, testing, and launch with the new brand.
Summer onward
Launch films and monthly content carry the new brand through its first year.
What's possible next
Integrated communications
An integrated communications plan for each new launch or acquisition, so your team hears about changes before your customers do.
Films by line of business
Films for each line of business — wholesale, managed services, MDU — paired with customer testimonials that prove 702's value in each market.
702 Communications, ready to do this?
You've kept homes, businesses, and buildings across this region connected for decades, and Tellwell has been one of those customers since our first office. This merger is a chance to make sure the people you serve understand what the new organization is building and why it matters to them.
Our role is to help your customers, partners, and team find you, trust you, and choose you. We'd be grateful to do it with you.
To start listening sessions in November, we'd love to know your choice of option by Friday, November 6. If the board needs to see this before you decide, we're glad to walk them through it with you.
Let's do this.
Warmly,
Jenny Johnson, Max Kringen & Team Tellwell
max@wetellwell.com · 701-566-0750